B’nai B’rith International has issued the following statement: B’nai B’rith International condemns the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) for its disgraceful endorsement of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and is repulsed by its accusations against Israel of “ethnic cleansing” and “genocide.” BDS is a campaign to isolate Israel economically and politically through boycotts and other discriminatory tactics. Its aim is to delegitimize and ultimately cripple the Jewish state. Its focus on one and only one state— Israel—demonstrates the highly sinister intentions of the movement, which ignores human rights violations committed by the world’s worst abusers while raining fusillades on the Jewish state. At UE’s national convention in mid-August the union adopted a resolution making it the first union in the United States to take a pro-BDS position. In the resolution, UE called on the United States to end its aid to Israel and aligned itself with overseas labor unions that also oppose the Jewish state. The resolution goes on to make absurd claims, fraudulently asserting that Palestinian citizens of Israel “survived ethnic cleansing,” and that members of the government, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have called for the stripping of citizenship and expulsion of Palestinians. The text further characterizes Israel’s defensive military operation in the wake of Hamas’ attacks on Israeli civilians in 2014 as “genocide.” While leveling outlandish falsehoods at the only democracy in the Middle East, the resolution does not once mention the terror organization Hamas and the violent fanaticism Israel faces everyday. The UE is perpetuating a one-sided, distorted view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In doing so, it is spreading hatred, endangering the security of the Middle East’s only democracy and harming the cause of peace in the region.